The challenge of providing optimal explosive delivery to a multitude of different target types has long existed. Specifically, there are three main types of potential targets. The first are relatively impenetrable hardened targets such as heavily armored vehicles, brick walls and concrete reinforced bunkers and buildings. For this type of target, the penetration of the incoming warhead will generally be minimal, and the nose and fuze of the warhead will be crushed and deformed by the impact. In the event that the warhead strikes this type of hardened target, a mechanism is necessary to guarantee that the fuze activates the primary explosive despite this crushing and deformation.
The second type of target, a fortified but penetrable target, is one with a relatively dense and thick, but penetrable skin, such as sandbagged timber bunkers, earth covered structures, or light armored vehicles. With this type of target, the optimal explosion allows the warhead enough time after impact to generate substantial penetration before exploding.
The final type of target, a light structured soft target, is one with a relatively thin or easily penetrable skin, for instance, glass windows, thin wooden doors, or thin metal. With these targets, the optimal explosion is obtained by detonating the warhead immediately after the outer skin of the target has been breached.
Prior art efforts disclose dual mode technology. These types of fuzes deal with the first two target types. In the case of an extremely hardened target, a mechanical firing pin is driven into the detonator by the deformation of the warhead. Using this mechanism, the warhead detonates upon impact with a target sufficiently hardened that physical destruction of the warhead would occur prior to any significant penetration. In the second type of target, an inertial plunger is used to detect the sudden deceleration caused by the impact against a penetrable object. The inertial plunger senses deceleration and initiates a delay train which then detonates the weapon after a set period of time.
However, the dual mode technology has been relatively ineffective for light structure targets. In the case of these targets, the time elapsed before the explosion is sufficiently great that the warhead moves beyond the optimal explosive area before the time delay element initiates the explosive train. For instance, in the case of light structured vehicles including helicopters and airplanes, a hit by a standard dual mode fuze enabled missile typically results in the missile passing entirely through the target and exploding at a substantial distance beyond the target.
No prior art provides a weapon capable of automatically adapting to all three types of targets.
Further, any new enhancement to the prior art must also overcome the problem of detecting the penetration of an object. The inertial changes experienced by a weapon passing through a soft target are typically small and often outside the operating limits of current dual mode fuzes. As a result, a warhead may pass through a soft target without initiating the fuzing sequence at all.